Travellers to Malaria-Endemic Countries Urged to Take Precautionary Measures

Jamaicans planning to travel to countries where malaria is endemic are being advised to take the necessary steps to safeguard themselves.

This urging comes from Medical Officer of Health for Westmoreland, Dr. Marcia Graham.

“If you are planning to travel overseas, it’s always good for you to check if you need to get prophylaxis, that is [the] medication to prevent you [from] contracting malaria. We have tablets that can be used to protect against malaria,” Dr. Graham said.

She was addressing the monthly meeting of the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation in Savanna-la-Mar on Thursday (April 13).

Symptoms of malaria include fever and flu-like illness such as chills, shivers, headache, muscle aches, and fatigue. Nausea, vomiting, and diarrhoea may also occur.

Malaria can cause anaemia and jaundice (yellow coloring of the skin and eyes) due to the loss of red blood cells.

Dr. Graham informed that malaria is endemic in several countries in the Americas, including Colombia, Peru, Brazil, and Venezuela, among others.

As such, persons are encouraged to advise the health department whether they plan to travel to any of these countries, so that preventative measures can be put in place.

“We need to know at least two weeks in advance, because the medication to prevent malaria is taken once per week, the same day every week. [Take it] two weeks before you travel [and] weekly while you are overseas. After you come back, you [should] continue taking it every week, once per week, for four weeks. That can prevent you from contracting malaria, even if you have been exposed,” she informed.

Dr. Graham said while malaria is not endemic in Jamaica, adequate precaution must still be taken as “there is always the risk of importing the virus, because the mosquito that transmits it, the Anopheles, is here.”

“So, if somebody who is infected comes and the Anopheles mosquito bites that person and then bites another person, we can have local transmission. So we are asking persons [to] help us to [get rid of] all the mosquitoes.

Don’t try to figure out if it is the Aedes [aegypti] which carries dengue or if it’s the Anopheles that carries malaria. Just try to search and destroy all mosquito breeding sites,” she emphasised.

World Malaria Day will be observed on April 25 under the theme ‘Time to Deliver Zero Malaria: Invest, Innovate, Implement’.